...| It Takes Courage | Unit 1 Assignment 1 | | Nadine Scusselle | 9/27/2013 | | “Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right.” ~~~Ralph Waldo Emerson Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines courage as, “the ability to do something that you know is difficult or dangerous.” Courage is the motivator that allows a person to step outside of a comfort zone and persist forward with an idea. Courage provides the enthusiasm to grab onto the idea and see that idea through to completion. A person is capable of being persistent and enthusiastic about an idea or a concept; but without courage, setbacks or negativity can cause the persistence and enthusiasm to wane. In the video “Manal al-Sharif: A Saudi woman who dared to drive,” from http://www.ted.com/talks/manal_al_sharif_a_saudi_woman_who_dared_to_drive.html, there is a story of courage. In American society, it has been almost a century since the end of the Women’s Right Movement. While women may still face issues within the society, they have the ability to face those issues without the ridicules once imposed prior to the movement. In Manal al-Sharif’s video, the story portrays a whole different societal view. In Memphis, TN there is a law that is still on the books to date. This law states that whenever a woman is driving a vehicle, a man...
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...Individualism: In the year of 1841, a writer by the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote an essay titled “Self-Reliance” about his philosophy on what it means to be a self-reliant individual through a series of ideas. Emerson’s philosophy is one of optimism and hope, it is based as much on intuition as it is on logic or reason, and it is idealistic in its validation of the inherent worth of each individual form of existence. Two of the ideas that Emerson writes about are “Charity” and “Individualism.” He rejects the idea of charity being an “apology” and wants the individual to live free of shame. According to Emerson, it is better for charitable acts to be genuine rather inconstant. However, he believes that Individualism is important and that people should trust and be true to themselves. Emerson considers charity as an unacceptable institution. According to him, charity is uncharitable and hypocritical. He argues that a man should worry more about his or her own family and community at home than about “black folk a thousand miles off” (4), and he chides people who give money to the poor. “Are they my poor?” he asks. He refuses to support morality through donations to organizations rather than directly to individuals. The concrete act of charity, in other words, is real and superior to abstract or theoretical morality. He sees charity as cloaked with hate and pride, as an untrue institution that serves only our vanity. Emerson also believes that men only act charitably in penance...
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...failed yet again. Life is a funny thing. As a child you have all these brilliant goals, and towering dreams that feel as close as your fingertips. However as you grow, and make decisions, mistakes even, you begin to see that your dreams, while still attainable, are further than you once thought, and take more effort than you may be prepared to give. This term, I started out very well. I was balancing the demands of work and school pretty easily, getting my work done each week before leaving campus. I had made up in my mind that this would be my time! My time to excel at academia! My time to conquer my biggest obstacle: Domonique B. Ayers! “Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine” Ralph Waldo Emerson Honestly, I can say I did better than I have in the past. I went all the way which is a milestone in and of itself. I’m proud of myself for it! I also can be honest and say that I am far from where I thought I would be, and know I should be by this time in my academic career. From my own perspective, I’m the greatest “work in progress” that I know. I have many strengths in many diverse things, I’m full of potential, but I also consider myself to have a fatal flaw: I don’t always believe in me. From the outside, and by my close friends, I’m known as “the one who has it all together”, the “go-to guy”, the “one we look up to”, “the dependable one” even. I still resolve to change the negative opinions I have of myself, to focus...
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...Title: Thoreau and Emerson In today’s society each individual has the ability to thinks for themselves, but the inception of different ideas and thoughts has led to a population that’s dominated by the majority . We live in a society where a media, television and internet are the sources of manipulating a person’s mind. It also creates their mindset to determine how one think about themselves or and different view point on topic. In this particular essay I am going to be talking about two main people who had similar argument about how to be individual and not let government take control over your lives. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were most influential writers of their time. They both had encouraged and practice individualism and nonconformity. In Ralph Waldo Emerson essay “Self Reliance” and Henry David Thoreau essay “Resistance to Civil Government” both spoke about how to become individual and what improvements needed to be made in American society. Emerson’s writings focus more on the self part of humanism and independence from society. On the other hand, Thoreau focused on writing on matters of the self but tended to have more of a political overtone in his argument. They both wanted to attack the dominant religious, political and cultural values of American society in order to make people aware that the individual is more important than the government and society. Thoreau and Emerson tried to incorporate the idea of relying on others to determine...
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...Jennifer Love October 22,2009 University 100 Barbara Boyd Essay Assignments #1 “To laugh often and much. . . to win the respect of intelligent people. . . to earn the appreciation of honest critics. . . to find the best in others. . . to leave the world a little better. . . this is the meaning of success.” – Waldo Emerson. When I was in high school, I often long to know what will my future laid. I often wonder what will I become or what will I have done. I also wonder how will I be able to adapt to the label as a “college student”. About eight weeks ago, I arrived to CSUN ( California State University of Northridge) as a college student, no longer a high student or a visitor, and I felt nervous but excited to see what does CSUN have to provide for me. Eight weeks went by fast, and now when I write this essay, I look back those wonderful eight weeks seem so yesterday. I met a lot of new faces, new names and I still cant remember all of their names because I've met SO many people in eight weeks. I discovered a whole new environment, new places, and a whole new journey for me. I learned how to deal with my roommates, learned how to adapt with them and work as a teamwork. I learned how to manage my time with social time and my education time. I learned that the classes are simple but yet hard. I learned how to deal with teachers, students and interpreter. Most of all, I enjoyed a lot being here as a CSUN student. Back in high school, I went to a mainstream school, Poly High...
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...The Swing How do you like to go up in a swing, Up in the air so blue? Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing Ever a child can do! Up in the air and over the wall, Till I can see so wide, River and trees and cattle and all Over the countryside-- Till I look down on the garden green, Down on the roof so brown-- Up in the air I go flying again, Up in the air and down! Robert Louis Stevenson Because I Could Not Stop for Death( personification) Top of Form Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality. We slowly drove, he knew no haste, And I had put away My labour, and my leisure too, For his civility. We passed the school where children played, Their lessons scarcely done; We passed the fields of gazing grain, We passed the setting sun. We paused before a house that seemed A swelling of the ground; The roof was scarcely visible, The cornice but a mound. Since then 'tis centuries; but each Feels shorter than the day I first surmised the horses' heads Were toward eternity. The poem by Emily Dickinson "Because I could not stop for Death" is know to be one of the best poems in English. Every image extends and intensifies each other. But there are some pro and cons in this poem. The poem helps us to characterize and bring death down to a more personal level. It shows a different perspective of death that the more popular views of death being brutal and...
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...Comparative Essay Ginsberg, Hughes and Thoreau Confidence and self-reliance are qualities that are admired and desired by many people. Confidence is defined as a feeling or consciousness of one's powers or of reliance on one's circumstances, and a faith or belief that one will act in a right, proper, or effective way. Self-reliance is defined as the ability to care for one's self. Because people aspire to be confident and self-reliant, these qualities are common themes in literature. This essay compares three quotes, taken from three very different pieces of literature about American values, in which confidence and self-reliance are illustrated. “I refuse to give up my obsession. America, stop pushing. I know what I’m doing.” – Allen Ginsberg, “America.” Allen Ginsberg’s “America” presents a sharp criticism of American culture by someone who has almost completely rejected its values. The poem’s speaker addresses America directly, as if he were giving a lecture or a sermon to the nation itself instead of to the American people. The nation’s aggressive anticommunist foreign policy and its culture of materialism and conformity are the targets of the speaker’s criticism. This poem was written in 1956 and was one of the first widely read literary statements of political unrest in the post-World War II America. Themes from the recent wars are prominent such as the nuclear bomb or Asian foreign policy, but the poem also depicts national racial unrest...
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...Drew Phillips Mrs. Moye M/W 10:30 AM December 1, 2012 Being Nobody But Myself An independent person is someone who supports him or herself and is forced to accomplish his or her own responsibilities unaided. A person who is dependent is better known for constantly relying on others for help. Always depending on others causes an individual to lack self-reliance and self-sufficiency. I can shamefully admit that, as a child, I was extremely dependent on everyone around me for everything I did. I was most dependent on my family, including my mom, dad, sister, and cousins. From age ten to twelve I became extremely needy that I started to develop severe laziness. I was so lazy that one day I had asked my cousin to make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, to which she replied no and demanded I make it myself. The only response my sluggish mind could utter was, “But I do not know how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” which was an absolute lie. It was as if I began to view my family as my servants. Rarely would I do anything for myself. All I had to say was “I want this” and it would become mine. I was given money, clothes, toys, and food whenever I wanted. I developed into an incompetent child. When I turned thirteen years old, my parents started to act stricter and enforced more rules. This was a turning point in my life because I finally understood that I could not be successful in life by relying on anyone else but myself. From that moment on, I focused all my...
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...Brendan Wu This World and the Next Kevin Goldstein November 29, 2014 A Thoreau Examination of Materialism In Walden, Thoreau admonishes society for succumbing to material desires and forsaking greater, more worthy pursuits like knowledge and self-reliance; similarly, in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Dick creates a world where dependence on material possessions causes society to sacrifice its humanity and ultimately creates irreversible ruin. Yet both authors acknowledge that material items are important, with Thoreau depending on things like his house and his field for survival, and Dick introducing pet animals and empathy boxes as possessions that heighten human experience rather than suppress it. Thoreau and Dick argue that material possessions themselves have the potential to make powerful and positive impacts. It is the unchecked desire for material possessions that leads to societal decline and unhappiness. Throughout Walden, Thoreau is largely critical of materialism, venturing into the solitude of Walden Pond for two years partly to escape society’s preoccupation with material possessions. In the beginning of “Economy,” he observes young townsmen strapped with large inheritances and comments that having a massive farm, which is typically perceived as a sign of prosperity, only creates obligations and forces its inhabitants to spend their entire lives toiling, whereas owning a meager plot of land both allows for self-sufficiency and provides time to explore...
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...for a career. Probably begins a journal. 1838: Gives his first lecture before the Concord Lyceum, thus initiating a practice that was to have an important effect on his writing. 1839: With his brother John, embarks on a fluvial excursion along the Concord and Merrimack, and gather material for The Week. 1840 Makes his bow as a poet: the Transcendentalist Dial prints his lyric about Edmund Sewall. 1841 As handyman and friend, takes up residence with the Emersons. Is attracted to Linda Emerson. 1842 Publishes in eh Dial which carries nine of his best poems and his essay Natural History of Massachusetts 1843 Leaves Emersons home to act as a tutor to Emersons nephew at Staten Island and to try his luck with the New York literary market. More publications of essays and poems. 1845: Goes to live in a hut beside Walden Pond. Commences his period of greatest literary productivity. 1846 Travels to Main; gathers some of the material later to go into The Maine Woods. 1847. Ends Walden experiment; resumes residence at Emerson home. 1849: Thoreaus first book, the Week, and most influential essay, Civil Disobedience, published. 1854 Walden or Life in the Woods published. 1857 Fight over slavery intensifies; Thoreau meets John Brown and is deeply impressed by him. 1860 More essays, including two on Brown are printed. 1862 Dies of tuberculosis on spring. Where I lived. By surveying, carpentry, and day-labor of various other kinds in the village in the meanwhile, for I have...
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...Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882) Beauty Was never form and never face So sweet to SEYD as only grace Which did not slumber like a stone, But hovered gleaming and was gone. Beauty chased he everywhere, In flame, in storm, in clouds of air. He smote the lake to feed his eye With the beryl beam of the broken wave; He flung in pebbles well to hear The moment's music which they gave. Oft pealed for him a lofty tone From nodding pole and belting zone. He heard a voice none else could hear From centred and from errant sphere. The quaking earth did quake in rhyme, Seas ebbed and flowed in epic chime. In dens of passion, and pits of woe, He saw strong Eros struggling through, To sun the dark and solve the curse, And beam to the bounds of the universe. While thus to love he gave his days In loyal worship, scorning praise, How spread their lures for him in vain Thieving Ambition and paltering Gain! He thought it happier to be dead, To die for Beauty, than live for bread This section introduces the idea that beauty is a part of nature that serves our needs. Emerson finds that the landscape has perfect order; this order creates a unity composed of the eye beholding a scene and the natural light highlighting the scene's inherent beauty. The third point Emerson makes concerning beauty is that it is pleasing to the intellect. Continuing his theme of nature's perfect order through the time era of romanticism...
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...Monique Edwards M. Gonzalez-Hernandez English 2327.003 November 1, 2012 Where I Lived, and What I Lived For Where I Lived, and What I Lived For is the title of the second chapter in the book Walden on Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau. The first part of this chapter explains how he built a hut near the forest of Walden Pond close to Concord, Massachusetts where he could gather his thoughts away from society. Thoreau writes in Walden: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived" (Thoreau 1028). Thoreau was an educated man who chose to live in poverty to explain to his readers that life can be as simple as nature. According to some critics, life cannot be as simple for various reasons: “This is contrasted to the human society from which he isolated himself, of whose utilitarianism, materialism, and consumerism he was extremely critical” (Environmental). In order to agree with Thoreau, one would need to have the same open mind and the ability to see and think outside the norm of society. Those who disagree with Thoreau do not believe that one can still “live deliberately” (Thoreau 1028). The critics clearly see that living such a simple life as Thoreau writes about is impossible. Life cannot be as simple as nature for many reasons. One reason is the outcome of life is not always simple...
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...American Romanticism * Early Romanticism * Washington Irving * James Cooper * Transcendentalism * Ralph Emerson * Henry Thoreau * Others: eg. Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne… * Romanticism---a retrospect * Background of Romanticism in Europe? * The Industrial Revolution * The French Revolution * Ideological change * Definition & Features of Romanticism? * Romanticism(The Romantic Movement) * 5 key features * Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century, recognized for expressions of exoticism, individualism, emotionalism, and the beauty of nature, rejecting the ordered rationality of the Enlightenment as mechanical, impersonal, and artificial. * Imagination; * Nature; * Individualism; * Glorification of the Commonplace; * The Lure of the Exotic * American Romanticism * Time: Romantic period---early 19th century to the outbreak of the Civil War * Forms: novels, short stories, and poems replaced sermons and manifestos as America’s principal literary forms * Background: * exterior: Romantic movement in Europe (inheritance) * interior: Westward movement and economic boom; * Literary themes: * Highly imaginative and subjective * Emotional intensity * Escapism * Common man as hero ...
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...2. Define and clarify three characteristics of Emersonianism/Transcendentalism Three main characteristics of transcendentalism as defined by Emerson himself in “The Transcendentalist,” are; respect for intuitions, withdrawal from labor and competition, and pursuit of a critical, solitary lifestyle. Transcendentalism can also be defined as a pursuit of the truth. Fundamentally, truth can be anything that an individual believes to be correct, based on his or her own intuition. All generally accepted social beliefs are to be tossed aside and one is to follow his or her instincts. Emerson rejected labor and any outcomes of labor. He did not believe in competition or government but rather in a self propelled world. Living a solitary lifestyle is thought of as an important feature in transcendentalism. Simplicity is said to stem from self-dependency. “Society is good when it does not violate me; but best when it is likest to solitude” (Emerson). It is believed that is one lives a simple life; all will go well for them. These are just three of the many principles and characteristics of transcendentalism. 4. Explain this statement in Thoreauvian terms: “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.” This quote taken from Thoreau’s “Civil Obedience,” is a statement that has made a large impression on countless. Thoreau believed that if the government is committing unjust actions, one should put his or her entire selves...
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...Emerson’s essay, “Self Reliance”, is a truly inspiring and interesting piece of literature that spoke to me on many different levels. From its sometimes subtle imagery of the times to its strong well written message about relying on one’s self and not conforming, it allows me to relate it to my own thoughts for a better understanding of the material. The two passages that spoke to me the most were found on pages 208 and 213 of our text. They spoke of doing your best and not listening to those who seem to know more and yet know nothing based on my interpretation. The quote found in the passage on page 208 is the one I will go into more detail with. On page 208 of the text one of the quotes mentioned were “But do your work, and I shall know you. Do you work, and you shall reinforce yourself.” (Pearson Education Company). This quote spoke to me because of the fact I believe that education and hard work is a way to express yourself and reinforce yourself to your employer or to others in your peer group. One of the things I judge myself by is how much I work to improve myself and my situation for the better. In regards to the image that I got when I read this quote, it was of someone working their way up to better themselves and to be acknowledge by their peers. I felt it was a motivational essay with a very serious, urgent and yet light tone that pulls the reader in so that its message is delivered. He goes on to say that “For nonconformity the world whips you with...
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